Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did.So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. --- Mark Twain

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Namibia

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Day 411
48,716 km since the beginning of the journey

Perhaps the better title could be - "Why silence and no blogs?" And for several weeks already? What has happened? While in South Africa could not explain the reason of not writing by the deficiency of proper net, because 3G spreads in almost all major cities. And cannot say that haven`t written because nothing has happened, quite on the contrary. Too much was happening and the issues did not want to proceed as planned before.
As planned beforehand??? Murphy's Law is in force in this part of the world as everywhere else in the world of100 percent and more.

Especially the following:If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anywayAnything that can go wrong will go wrong.If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.Nothing is as easy as it looks. Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrongNothing is as easy as it looks.Everything takes longer than you think.Everything takes longer than it takes.It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingeniousAll that is put together, sooner or later breaks apart.

That`s the way it is. Starting with the car technical failures and problems and other issues as well.
Actually I felt sorry to leave LAV behind. Considering the size of the country and its interesting history and all the attractions there - just not enough time! Of course – we can say to ourselves that there is never time for everything ...but still...

But now about Namibia. The area is 825.4 thousand km 2, or figuratively, it can be said that Namibia is almost as big as France and Germany all together. You drive, and drive and no end in sight. But the number of population of the country is about 2 million, which means that the country is almost empty.

Slightly away from the road the remains of a car catch the eye. Something has happened in this deserted place, so that it had been impossible to drive on and so the car was left here.

A bird's nest up on a tree. Probably more than one meter in diameter.

Another bird's nest and a Quiver Tree or Kokerboom.

In Southern Namibia near Keetmanshoop there is whole forest of aloe trees. Forest. Not as thick as we are accustomed to - but all together about 250 trees, and it is a national attraction (Quiver Tree Forest is a National Monument since 1995).

Just next to the farm there is a place for camping.

Sunset
And there are cheetahs in the farm, and at 5 o´clock a chance to watch them being fed. I arrive at the gate a quarter of an hour earlier, with cameras, and then the yard gate is opened, and I am invited with - let's go. Let's go!? Where to? The owner of the farm has a basket full of meat in his hand.

So in we go. The master calls the animals and they come. I ask whether the animals are not dangerous? Yes they are, but up till now – there have been no problems. Somehow similar to the attitude of the dog owners - yes, the dog is huge and is barking but this does not mean that the dog bites.

And some of them allow to be scratched from behind the ear at the feeding time.

This is not my hand. I was not going to try scratching them myself, the owner scratched them, and they were not just inviting to be stroked by me. These two were born here in the same farm, but still.

For me Keetmanshoop is the first inhabited place in Namibia. One can find here the Spar store to complement the stocks of food. There are a couple of gasoline stations as well.

And there is also the local telecom office and I can buy a sim card for internet and a local phone card. There is no bureaucracy, no copies of the passport are required, generally - not any document is necessary. Speed 3G network is only in the larger settlements, but when it works, then it is quite a decent speed.